Day 24 - Up Forester we go!

pass Vidette Meadow to Shepherd pass trail 10991ft elevation. 

We climbed up to Forester Pass 13160ft 

Today we traveled: 10.8miles. 2940ft elevation gain 2238ft elevation loss. 

JMT mile marker: 193.9mile.

It was a cold cold night and I didn’t sleep much. In the morning the outside of the tent was wet and everything that touched it got wet. We waited for the sun to dry everything out and it took forever. We were pretty miserable. Around 9:30am we finally got our act together, dry enough to be packed and we started walking. 

Cold morning waiting for the sun to shine on the canyon 

Everyone we passed was telling the same story, got wet last night and had to dry everything. With each encounter we felt less sorry for ourselves and more cheered up. We had to get our mind right - we had a big climb in front of us to the top of Forester - the tallest pass yet at 13160ft and we were up for the challenge.

The sky was blue with only a few clouds and it looked promising. We did ok till about 12400ft and then it was a slow going but we kept pushing on.

Marmot enjoying the sun

Beautiful shade of blue 

As steep as it looks

Where’s the trail?!

I stoped and notice a cute Pika was just next to me, showing me the grass it picked up. I got a few pictures before moving on. 

Soon we were at the top and it felt so good to be over with the 2nd hardest thing we will need to do this all trip. Next it will be Whitney!! 

Made it to the top

It was steep on the other side

And had icicles from last night storm

Better not knowing what underneath you

We are constantly checking the weather report as we talked to a few hikers heading north that were not able to summit due to the weather. We heard of rangers turning hikers away for safety. I try to encourage them saying they can come back for it after but I know how devastating it must feel. 

The rest of the day was hiking in a beautiful meadows with lots of streams, grass and marmot. 

We camped in the first forest we’ve seen. 

Set for camp. Bob fix the tent with rocks so if it rains the water don’t go under our tent. (Between the tarp and the tent) 

Picked up a few new stickers in town. Independence, CA.  

It looks like the trail is empty because of the storm or because it’s the end of the summer I can’t tell. Yifat